LOCATION SCOUTING (AND THE ROBOTS' NAMES ARE HUEY, DEWEY & LOUIE)

Beginning with a range of views from outside the Biosphere, in which film is speeded up to make the Biosphere appear to be travelling through space, this piece explores the site of the Biosphere itself. The majority of the footage was taken inside the structure using robots, who mechanically scan their surroundings and take regular photographs. Behind the noise of the movement of the camera, we hear the background hum of the technological equipment which maintains this ’new ark’. Without reference to human interest, every aspect of the Biosphere is afforded equal value. Warning signs, electric cables, piping, leaves, concrete, people, the glass-and-steel roof – from the external spaces to the living areas, the laboratories to the maintenance basement, the images are linked sequentially by the robots’ movement into a narrative structure, with each separate location forming a chapter. Could this be described as a translation of the space into a novel?